The story quotes Birkenfeld saying he is preparing to disclose the names two prominent Americans with the offshore accounts. The bank had $20 billion in assets from Americans, but US authorities did not take action against all of them, he said. Birkenfeld, who also served jail time in the case, said he is seeking a pardon from President Trump.

The IRS rewards those who provide original information about tax evasion if their information results in a sanction against the tax law violator. Last year, whistleblowers helped the IRS collect more than $1.4 billion in criminal fines and civil forfeitures, according to the agency.

Of that record amount, more than $300 million went to IRS whistleblowers – an average of 21.7 percent of proceeds collected.That’s an increase from fiscal year 2017, when the average reward was 17 percent. Since 2007, the program has made more than $800 million in whistleblower awards based on the collection of $5 billion.

The Law and Crime Network story reported that US government officials appearing at the conference “boasted of the more than $500 million paid by the United States this last year to whistleblowers. No single whistleblower has ever been paid more than Birkenfeld.”

About Us

The National Whistleblower Center (NWC), a non-profit, tax-exempt, non-partisan organization, is the leading whistleblower advocacy organization with an over 30-year history of protecting the right of individuals to report wrongdoing without fear of retaliation and securing rewards to whistleblowers for helping deliver criminal and civil penalties against wrongdoers.

The National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund (NWLDEF) is a non-profit law firm that provides services to the NWC and whistleblowers from around the world. NWC and NWLDEF run the Whistleblower Protection Blog to inform readers about whistleblowers in the news and advances in whistleblower protections.